


What is essential is invisible to the eye

by knightstemplar



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-21 11:35:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21074240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knightstemplar/pseuds/knightstemplar
Summary: Wally reminiscens about the past and wonders how much Artemis remembers.She's in the hospital and he's stuck with his thoughts.





	What is essential is invisible to the eye

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this on a whim instead of finishing other things, but that's just the Knight work etic here.

_ It was when they were young and before they were dating, and he was a snotty brat and she was a bratty snot and they fought tooth and nail without losing. _

_ She’s cursing and wiping blood from her face and he couldn’t hear what she’s saying even though she’s mouthing something. The video in his mind is broken and the audio gone, the last thing he remembers was her triumphant grin, teeth white in the dusk, on repeat, over and over again._

Artemis, do you remember being young?

* * *

When he wakes up in the hospital she’s already awake beside him. 

“You look like shit,” she tells him.

“Right back at ya, babe.”

He got her flowers but forgot the water, so he has to run and get some. When he gets back her eyes are closed and she’s leaning back on the bed, chest rising gently with every breath. She opens one eye when he walks through the door before sitting down at the appointed visitors chair and they’re in silence.

There’s a scar on her face now, white and old, dragging itself from her mouth down her jaw. Wally has a hard time picturing her without it, but he knows she didn’t have it when they were kids.

He’s long gone jittery from being still, she’s restless from laying. Together they probably have enough pent-up energy to run the hospital for a week.

“Let’s go for a walk,” she suggests and carefully gets out of bed, without his help.

Wally knows how many ribs Artemis has broken, how her head must ache and throb, but despite that, she keeps walking with her own strength. It makes her walk slower than usual and he slows his pace, just slightly. 

Healing causes the body to be exhausted.

The villains were small fry but there was a kid-hero (there’s always some kid-hero) and she was crushed by falling debris when she pushed them away, caught in the crossfire of the battle. Artemis’ heart is just too damn big and she needs to save everyone. She always does.

As they sit down on a bench he keeps thinking about how he wasn’t there and he wonders if he’d been, would it have been different, what if—?

“It wasn’t your fault, Wally.”

He keeps dozing off and suddenly the bandage across her head is suddenly in focus. The white hurts his eyes a little. Did she always have those lines under hers?

“Artemis…”

She flicks his nose with her good hand, the one that isn’t blue from her elbow to the tip of her fingers, the one he dares to look at.

“Don’t strain yourself thinking,” she laughs and it’s a bit hacky and not as strong as it usually is, “It’s not good for you.”

“I’m not…! I was just…” he lets out a sigh and her eyes go soft because she knows he was so worried he threw up when he heard the news of her being in the hospital.

They made a rule, a long time ago, that they weren’t allowed to get worried about one another because in that case, they’d never be at peace. They promised and shook hands and he remembers he spun her around in his arms and they kissed and his heart was beating at a steady pace.

“This is for you,” she digs in the pocket of her hoodie. Technically it is, or was, his hoodie, but it’s green, so now it’s hers.

(_"You don’t even wear green Wally!” she exclaimed promptly before stole it out of his closet and pulled it over her head, hair electric in every direction, “I’m just making good use of it!” _

_ He did buy it because it was her colour, but he didn’t tell her that. _

_ “Hey!” he said instead, feigning a pout, “It brings out my eyes! I’ll wear it every day!” _)

It’s a bag of dried fruit snacks. As he opens it, he inhales a puff of pineapple, coconut, and plum and he must pull a face because Artemis laughs again. 

Oh, if that is not just the most wonderful sound.

“I figured you didn’t eat breakfast or lunch today, or dinner last night,” she says, “Since you didn’t go home.”

“Uhm,” his stomach grumbles and gives him away.

“Ha! See? I knew it.”

When they’re home, she often wakes up earlier than him to make cuppa (it’s always jasmine or lotus, because neither of them likes artichoke tea), and usually she makes a cup for him too. While she’s sipping her tea, he makes them breakfast. It’s routine, a pattern they’ve engraved into their mornings. They always eat together, even when Artemis doesn’t have a morning class to teach or Wally only has labs in the afternoon. There’s always a kiss goodbye at the door before he runs off in a hurry because he’s always late, somehow.

He doesn’t remember them before this, he doesn’t want to remember mornings without Artemis.

His face suddenly feels wet.

“Oi, Wally!” Artemis shakes his shoulder, voice filled with concern, “What’s happening why are you—?!”

He wipes his tears and the video plays again, so he tries grinning like Artemis from a long time ago, like her blood then is his tears now.

“It’s nothing! I just…” heart stuck in throat, “I’m so lucky, to have you, and I know we said we shouldn’t be worried but Artemis I was so worried. I can’t bear the thought of going home to an empty house, okay?” he buries his face in his hands, “Okay?”

“Okay,” and he feels her calloused hands peeling his own away and she cups his cheek and her hands are cold (or maybe he’s always warm) and he averts his eyes. The tears don’t really stop and neither does his words.

“You’re so strong, Artemis, you’re stronger than me and everyone else and you’re the most heroic bastard I know and you can deal with anything and I can’t even bring myself to eat alone in the mornings.”

“I’m lucky to have you too, fool,” when her voice cracks he finally looks up, “There’s this video I have in my head, and it’s you and it’s me and we just won a fight and my face is bleeding and I’m yelling something crude and you’re looking at me like I’m the only thing in the world. I play it over and over and over.”

_ Artemis, do you remember being young? _

“I have that too,” he gasps for air because he’s been holding his breath, “It’s the same. It’s you and me.”

They’re a couple, not as young as they once were, crying in the park of a hospital.

* * *

“Go home Wally, get some sleep,” she lays down in bed again, this time he helps her.

He sits down in his chair again and puts his hand over hers and she squeezes it.

“Tomorrow, I’ll get a thermos, and I’ll make tea and we can drink it together,” he promises, “I’ll sneak it past the nurses if I have to. I’ll be very covert.”

Tiredness melts away when they’re together.

“I don’t want to grow old without you,” it slips out before he can stop himself.

“You won’t.”

* * *

_ Her blood is on his face and her clothes are dusty from the dirt on his. It was before they were really dating and wanted to live together. She’s uttering profanity and beaming with victory and he’s in love, though he doesn’t know it yet. _

_ The video keeps playing, again and again, over and over. Always on repeat. _

_ The world shines brighter when they’re together. He’ll never forget being young. _

_ He can see the happiness, clear as day, that’s no longer invisible to his eyes. _

**Author's Note:**

> Trivia time! I wrote ananas instead of pineapple and just couldn't figure out why it sounded so wrong in English (I spent a good minute thinking before getting it was in the wrong language lol), but that's what you get for writing instead of sleeping!
> 
> Guess who read _Le Petit Prince_ once when he was like five and straight up stole a quote to use for his title? This guy!


End file.
